Wednesday, July 15, 2009

It was definitely the worst-kept secret and the most over-reported physical in the history of Philadelphia sports, so I will spare you the details here. The bottom line is the Phillies brought veteran pitcher Pedro Martinez to Philadelphia Tuesday for an extensive physical with the idea that, if he passed, he would be a Phillie. Well, Pedro passed, so now he will sign with the Phils.

The deal will be for the rest of this season for 1 million bucks plus another 1.5 million in incentives if he does well. Martinez will have to start in the minors as he works back into game shape, so it could still be a while before he pitches for the big league club. There is also the possibility that Pedro never quite gets where the Phillies want him to be and the team simply waives him.

While I am not that excited about the idea of signing a 37 year old pitcher who had an ERA well over 5 last season, I do see this as a low-risk, high-reward move for the Phillies. If Pedro stinks, they only invested 1 million dollars in him so it will be easy to cast him aside. If Pedro is the Pedro of a few years ago, then the Phillies got a huge bargain for a playoff-tested ace. Of course, the reality is that Pedro will be somewhere in the middle of those two scenarios, which is still a useful pitcher. He figures to slot into the 4th or 5th spot in the rotation and if he can put up an ERA of around 4.50, he figures to win a few games for the Phillies.

I'm not a huge fan of Pedro Martinez as he is an ex-Met and is known to be a bit of a me-first player. As long as he doesn't cause a stir in the Phillies locker room and at least pitches adequately, then this is a smart move for the Phillies. More importantly, Ruben Amaro has made it clear that this signing will not get in the way of any possible deal for Roy Halladay. Word from Toronto seems to be that the Blue Jays aren't likely to trade Halladay, but if they do, the Phillies better be first in line making offers.